Systems and methods for linking ACH data with merchant loyalty data

ABSTRACT

A method for linking alternative payment information with customer loyalty data includes obtaining a customer loyalty identifier associated with a customer, reading customer data from a database based on the obtained customer loyalty identifier, obtaining alternative payment information from the read customer data, determining whether payment by the alternative payment information is enabled for the customer loyalty identifier, prompting the customer to enable payment by the alternative payment information, prompting the customer for authorization information associated with payment by the alternative payment information, enabling payment by the alternative payment information for the customer loyalty identifier, and applying the alternative payment information to a current purchase of the customer.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of customerpayment transactions and, more particularly, to linking alternativepayment information with customer loyalty data.

BACKGROUND

Traditionally, merchants and other store owners have point of sale (POS)terminals and POS systems that can accept check or payment card paymentsfrom customers for goods and services. Merchants typically contract withan acquirer processor to process payment transactions originating fromthe merchant's POS terminals and POS systems. Acquirer processorsprocess the payment transactions and settle funds between customers' andmerchants' accounts. Online vendors accept bank and payment cardpayments from Internet customers and can process those payments usingservices provided by payment network providers, such as acquirerprocessors. Utilities, service providers, and other online partiessimilarly accept bank transfers and accept payments from payment cardsusing similar services provided by payment network providers.

Payment network providers, such as acquirer processors, typically chargethe merchant fees for processing such payment card transactions. A largeportion of these fees may be pass-through fees from the card issuingbanks, also known as interchange fees, and the card networks, also knownas assessment fees. In contrast, such fees are typically much lower forprocessing check payments, also known as automated clearing house (ACH)payments.

Customers may prefer the convenience of payment by payment card overcheck payments, and may be unaware of or otherwise indifferent to thecost of payment card processing fees because the fees are not directlyreflected in the cost of the items being purchased, while merchants mayprefer to accept ACH payments in order to reduce payment processingfees. In order to persuade a customer to make a payment by ACH insteadof a payment card, a merchant may be willing to offer discounts or otherincentives. However, in a traditional payment processing system, amerchant may not have the ability to recognize a customer, associate thetransaction with the customer's ACH payment information, and offer suchincentives. The merchant may have data associating the customer's ACHdata with other information associated with the customer such as, forexample, customer loyalty account information or previously storedpersonally identifying information (PII), such as payment cardinformation, etc.

Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for associating acustomer transaction with previously stored ACH payment information andoffering the customer incentives to process the transaction by ACHinstead of a payment card.

SUMMARY

According to certain aspects of the present disclosure, systems andmethods are disclosed for linking alternative payment information withcustomer loyalty data.

In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method is disclosed forlinking alternative payment information with customer loyalty data. Themethod includes: obtaining a customer loyalty identifier associated witha customer, reading customer data from a database based on the obtainedcustomer loyalty identifier, obtaining alternative payment informationfrom the read customer data, and applying the alternative paymentinformation to a current purchase of the customer.

In accordance with another embodiment, a system is disclosed for linkingalternative payment information with customer loyalty data. The systemcomprises: a memory having processor-readable instructions storedtherein; and a processor configured to access the memory and execute theprocessor-readable instructions, which when executed by the processorconfigures the processor to perform a plurality of functions, includingfunctions to: obtain a customer loyalty identifier associated with acustomer, read customer data from a database based on the obtainedcustomer loyalty identifier, obtain alternative payment information fromthe read customer data, and apply the alternative payment information toa current purchase of the customer.

In accordance with another embodiment, a non-transitory machine-readablemedium is disclosed that stores instructions that, when executed by acomputer, cause the computer to perform a method for linking alternativepayment information with customer loyalty data. The method includes:obtaining a customer loyalty identifier associated with a customer,reading customer data from a database based on the obtained customerloyalty identifier, obtaining alternative payment information from theread customer data, and applying the alternative payment information toa current purchase of the customer.

Additional objects and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will beset forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will beapparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of thedisclosed embodiments. The objects and advantages of the disclosedembodiments will be realized and attained by means of the elements andcombinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of the detailed embodiments, as claimed.

It may be understood that both the foregoing general description and thefollowing detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only andare not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure and together with the description, serve to explainthe principles of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 depicts a payment transaction between a customer and a merchant.

FIG. 2 depicts a merchant environment for processing customer paymenttransactions, according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts contents of a merchant payment transaction database,according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting an example process for linkingautomated clearing house (ACH) data with merchant loyalty data.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

While principles of the present disclosure are described herein withreference to illustrative embodiments for particular applications, itshould be understood that the disclosure is not limited thereto. Thosehaving ordinary skill in the art and access to the teachings providedherein will recognize additional modifications, applications,embodiments, and substitution of equivalents all fall within the scopeof the embodiments described herein. Accordingly, the invention is notto be considered as limited by the foregoing description.

Various non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure will now bedescribed to provide an overall understanding of the principles of thestructure, function, and use of systems and methods disclosed herein forinstalling and managing point of interaction devices within a merchantenvironment.

As described above, merchants may prefer to accept ACH payments in orderto reduce payment processing fees, and, in order to persuade a customerto make a payment by ACH instead of a payment card, a merchant may bewilling to offer discounts or other incentives. Thus, the embodiments ofthe present disclosure are directed to providing systems and methods forlinking customer ACH data with merchant loyalty data.

For simplicity, the description that follows will be provided byreference to a “payment vehicle” or a “payment card,” which generallyrefers to any type of alternative to currency. As is to be clear tothose skilled in the art, no aspect of the present disclosure isspecifically limited to a specific type of payment vehicle or paymentcard. Therefore, it is intended that the following descriptionencompasses the use of the present disclosure with many other forms offinancial alternatives to currency, including credit cards, debit cards,smart cards, single-use cards, prepaid cards, electronic currency (suchas might be provided through a cellular telephone or personal digitalassistant), and the like. Payment vehicles or payment cards can betraditional plastic transaction cards, titanium-containing, or othermetal-containing, transaction cards, clear and/or translucenttransaction cards, foldable or otherwise unconventionally-sizedtransaction cards, radio-frequency enabled transaction cards, or othertypes of transaction cards, such as credit, charge, debit, prepaid orstored-value cards, electronic benefit transfer cards, or any other likefinancial transaction instrument.

Merchants use payment platforms, such as Point of Sale (“POS”)terminals, POS systems, and pin pad terminals, to accept payments fromcustomers in the form of cash, check, credit cards, and so forth.Although POS terminals and POS systems are the most common type ofpayment platforms, the term “payment platform” as used herein isintended to be construed broadly and would include systems for couponredemption, and systems for implementing frequent use programs orcustomer loyalty programs, among other suitable transaction-basedsystems that involve certification of their ability to correctly processtransactions with other systems. Nonlimiting examples oftransaction-based systems could also include payment facilitators,ecommerce systems, mobile platforms, non-terminal POS solutions, andsoftware solutions, such as those developed by independent softwarevendors, among other suitable transaction-based systems.

One or more examples of these non-limiting embodiments are illustratedin the selected examples disclosed and described in detail withreference to FIGS. 1-4 in the accompanying drawings. Those of ordinaryskill in the art will understand that systems and methods specificallydescribed herein and illustrated in the accompanying drawings arenon-limiting embodiments. The features illustrated or described inconnection with one non-limiting embodiment may be combined with thefeatures of other non-limiting embodiments. Such modifications andvariations are intended to be included within the scope of the presentdisclosure.

Turning to FIG. 1, in a typical scenario, a customer 102 may complete apurchase using a merchant's point of sale (POS) device 110 and pin padterminal 112. During the purchase transaction, customer 102 may presentan identifier 101 for a merchant loyalty program or, alternatively, apayment vehicle, such as payment vehicle 201 depicted in FIG. 2.Merchant loyalty program identifier 101 may be read by, for example, acard reader 103, but other means for reading merchant loyalty programidentifier 101 may be employed. Pin pad terminal 112 may include adisplay area 122, which may be used to display, for example, details ofthe customer's purchase, prompts for user interaction, promotionalmessages for the merchant or for other entities, etc. In FIG. 1, displayarea 122 is depicted as displaying a prompt to customer 102 offering adiscount in exchange for participation in an alternative paymentprogram. An exemplary merchant environment that may include pin padterminal 112 and display area 122 will be described in greater detailwith respect to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 depicts a merchant environment 200 for processing customerpayment transactions, according to one or more embodiments. Environment200 may include merchant 210, an acquirer processor 230, a financialinstitution 240, and customer 102, which may be provided incommunication with each other via a payment network 220. The componentsof the payments processing network may be connected by any combinationof wired or wireless networks, for example, PSTNs and/or the Internet.Acquirer processor 230 (e.g., acquiring bank) may be in partnership withpayment network 220, such that the acquirer processor 230 may processpayments through, and on behalf of, payment network 220. Payment network220 may in turn have a partnership with financial institution 240 (e.g.,issuing bank). Financial institution 240 may hold accounts for one ormore customers 102. Customer 102 may have a payment vehicle 201 (e.g.,credit card, debit card, stored value card, etc.) which may beaffiliated with payment network 220. Customer 102 may be able to usetheir payment vehicle 201 to make purchases with merchant 210.

Acquirer processor 230 may be an entity that provides a variety ofelectronic payment processing services to merchant 210. For example,acquirer processor 230 may be an entity that receives paymentinformation from a transaction which occurs at a pin pad terminal 112 ofmerchant 210. The payment information may be, for example, payment cardinformation encoded in the magnetic stripe or EMV chip of paymentvehicle 201 and a payment amount of a transaction being made by, forexample, customer 102 with merchant 210 using the payment card accountassociated with payment vehicle 201. Acquirer processor 230 may processthe information, and may send the information to the customer'srespective financial institution 240 via an appropriate payment network220 depending on the particulars of payment vehicle 201. Processing theinformation may include, for example, determining the identity ofpayment network 220 and financial institution 240 associated with theparticular payment vehicle 201.

Acquirer processor 230 may also receive information from payment network220, such as confirmation or rejection of an attempted transaction usingpayment vehicle 201, and may convey that information to the appropriatePOS terminal. Moreover, acquirer processor 230 may provide securityand/or encryption services to merchant 210 and payment network 220, suchthat payments processed at pin pad terminal 112 may be completed with adecreased risk of data or financial theft or loss. Acquirer processor230 may be located, for example, at a remote location from merchant 210that uses its services, and may, for example, interact with merchant 210primarily over an electronic network, such as a data network or theInternet.

Payment network 220 may be, for example, a network that relays debitand/or credit transactions to and from various accounts at financialinstitution 240. For example, payment network 220 may have a partnershipprogram with financial institution 240 through which financialinstitution 240 may provide a payment vehicle account to customer 102associated with payment network 220. Payment network 220 may also bepartnered with acquirer processor 230, which may manage paymenttransactions associated with payment network 220. Examples of paymentnetwork brands include, e.g., Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and AmericanExpress. While a single payment network 220 is illustrated, it is to beappreciated that multiple payment networks may be partnered with asingle or multiple acquirer processors.

Financial institution 240 may be a bank that manages payment accountsassociated with one or more payment networks 220 on behalf of one ormore customers 102. For example, financial institution 240 may allow forcustomer 102 to build up a revolving credit balance at financialinstitution 240 and may periodically receive payments from customer 102to pay down the balance. Customer 102 may be an individual, a company,or other entity having accounts with one or more financial institutions240. Each customer 102 may generally have at least one payment vehicle201 associated with each payment account held by that customer. Eachcustomer 102 may have multiple accounts with multiple financialinstitutions 240, which may be affiliated with the same or differentpayment networks 220.

Merchant 210 may be a merchant offering goods and/or services for saleto customer 102 who have contracted with acquirer processor 230.Merchant 210 may be equipped with POS device 110, which is configured toreceive payment information from payment vehicle 201 and to relayreceived payment information to acquirer processor 230. Merchant 210 canbe any type of merchant, such as a brick-and-mortar retail location oran e-commerce/web-based merchant with a POS device 110 or a web paymentinterface.

In FIG. 2, customer 102 is shown to be associated with a payment vehicle201. As is to be appreciated, payment vehicle 201 can include any typeof payment vehicle that can be utilized to initiate a paymenttransaction. Unless otherwise specified herein, “payment vehicle”includes a virtual card, such as a display or screenshot for a mobilephone or for another portable device (e.g., a flash drive, smart chip, alaptop or portable computer), or for a computer device (e.g., a desktopcomputer) in combination with data indicative of an account number orother account indicative information. Data associated with the cards mayinclude an encrypted or unencrypted account number or other encrypted orunencrypted account indicative information and/or encrypted orunencrypted information associated with a particular card, issuer,creator or group of merchants. It is also contemplated that the card mayhave multiple embodiments or forms. For example, the card may be aphysical card (e.g., in the form of a magnetic striped plastic card), avirtual card (e.g., in the form of a display on a smart phone), or both.In embodiments in which the card is a virtual card, the correspondingaccount information (e.g., account number) would initially be providedto the customer and the customer would communicate the accountinformation to the merchant. The virtual card may be communicated bydisplaying a display or screenshot, and/or by transmitting a signal,such as by using a near field communication (NFC) technology, or othersecure transport technologies to complete the transaction with theselected merchant. NFC is a short range, high frequency, wirelesscommunication technology that enables the exchange of data betweendevices over a relatively short distance. Optionally, the virtual cardmay have a display element (e.g., a barcode or string of numbers) whichidentifies the account number associated with the card. Alternatively,the virtual card may have display elements relating to the merchantswhich accept the card. Thus, whether the card is physical or virtual,the card may communicate account information.

A POS device 110 of merchant 210 may provide transaction information tothe payment network 220 using any desired payment transactioncommunications, and may communicate with a pin pad terminal 112. Whencustomer 102 checks-out, or pays for the goods or services, theidentifying indicia of customer 102 may be used for authentication. Inone or more embodiments, pin pad terminal 112 may include an NFC system214. NFC system 214 may communicate wirelessly with payment vehicle 201of customer 102, for example to obtain an authorization code oridentifying information of customer 102 or of payment vehicle 201. Inone or more embodiments, pin pad terminal 112 may include a keypad 216.Customer 102 may enter a personal identification number on keypad 216for making a payment. Other numbers or alphanumeric characters, such astemporary passwords or authorization codes, are also contemplated aswould be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. In one or moreembodiments, pin pad terminal 112 may include a scanner 218. Customer102 may display a code, such as, for example, a barcode or quickresponse (QR) code, etc., on the display of their mobile computingdevice to provide identifying indicia of customer 102. Scanner 218 maybe, for example, a handheld scanner, an embedded scanner such as is usedto scan items at grocery stores, a camera, and so forth as would beunderstood by one of ordinary skill in the art.

Pin pad terminal 112 may include a display area 122. In one or moreembodiments the display area 122 may be, for example, a window, awidget, or a pop-up, a webpage, and so forth, and be rectangular ornonrectangular, and occupy one or multiple contiguous or non-contiguousareas of pin pad terminal 112.

Pin pad terminal 112 may generate a payment request for payment bymerchant 210. The payment request may include information such as, forexample, information identifying the merchant to acquirer processor 230or the party of payment network 220, the payment amount, which caninclude a gratuity, identifying indicia for customer 102, authenticationinformation such as whether the customer was authenticated by merchant210 using images of customer 102, and/or authentication information suchas personal identification number entered on keypad 216 by the customer,a code scanned by scanner 218, or information about customer 102 orpayment vehicle 201 received via NFC handshake or any other suitableauthentication information.

In such a payment processing environment, any of acquirer processor 230,financial institution 240, or the issuer of payment vehicle 201 maycharge fees to merchant 210 in exchange for completing the transaction.Merchant 210 may, accordingly, wish to use alternative paymentmechanisms in order to avoid or reduce such fees. For example, merchant210 may wish to direct customer 102 to make payment using a checkpayment, also known as an automated clearing house (ACH) payment, whichmay reduce or eliminate fees paid by merchant 210. Methods and systemsfor such alternative payments will be disclosed below with respect toFIGS. 3 and 4.

In the course of completing a payment transaction, merchant 210 maycollect certain information pertaining to customer 102. For example,merchant 210 may collect ACH data 320, including a routing number 322and account number 324, an email address 330, and a customer loyaltyidentifier 310 associated with payment vehicle 201 of customer 102. Thisinformation may be stored in a payment transaction database 300 as shownin FIG. 3. For example, customer loyalty identifier 310 and ACH data 320may be obtained by merchant 210 in the course of processing separatepayment transactions for customer 102. Alternatively, for example,merchant 210 may obtain customer loyalty identifier 310 and/or ACH data320 through customer interactions not associated with a transaction suchas, for example, during an enrollment process for the merchant customerloyalty program, customer surveys that may be conducted online, bytelephone or in person, direct entry by the customer in order toauthorize the association of customer loyalty identifier 310 and/or ACHdata 320 with other items of data pertaining to the customer, etc.Merchant 210 may then associate customer loyalty identifier 310 with ACHdata 320 based on other common data pertaining to customer 102 such as,for example, email address 330 as shown in FIG. 3. For example, merchant210 may obtain a customer's email address at the time of issuing acustomer loyalty identifier so that merchant 210 may record emailaddress 330 in payment transaction database 300. Other types of commondata may be used such as, for example, telephone numbers, postaladdresses, payment account numbers, etc.

With an association between customer loyalty identifier 310 and ACH data320, merchant 210 may offer customer 102 a choice to complete a paymenttransaction using ACH data instead of payment vehicle 201. FIG. 4 is aflow chart depicting an example process for linking automated clearinghouse (ACH) data with merchant loyalty data. As shown in FIG. 4, inoperation 405, a merchant may obtain a customer loyalty identifierpertaining to a customer. For example, merchant 210 depicted in FIG. 2may obtain customer loyalty identifier 310 from customer 102 by way of,for example, a terminal, such as pin pad terminal 112, in communicationwith point-of-sale (POS) system 110 of merchant 210. The customerloyalty identifier may be obtained when the customer completes atransaction at the merchant's POS terminal, as shown in FIG. 1. Forexample, the customer may present a customer loyalty card, such ascustomer loyalty card 101 shown in FIG. 1. The customer loyalty cardidentifier may be encoded in a magnetic stripe or chip of the customerloyalty card and may be read by card reader 103 of pin pad terminal 112.Alternatively, customer 102 may display a code, such as, for example, abarcode or quick response (QR) code, etc., on the display of theirmobile computing device to provide the customer loyalty identifier.Alternatively, the customer loyalty identifier may be communicated tothe merchant by transmitting a signal, such as by using a near fieldcommunication (NFC) technology, or other secure transport technologies.In operation 410, the merchant may read customer data from a databasebased on customer loyalty identifier 310. For example, merchant 210 mayread data from payment transaction database 300 as shown in FIG. 3. Inoperation 415, the merchant may determine whether ACH data correspondingto the customer loyalty ID is found in the database. If ACH datacorresponding to the customer loyalty ID is not found in the databasethen in operation 420, the merchant may obtain ACH data corresponding tothe customer loyalty ID, for example, by prompting the customer to enteror provide the ACH data. If ACH data corresponding to the customerloyalty ID is found in the database then in operation 425, the merchantmay determine whether payment by the ACH data is enabled for thecustomer loyalty identifier.

If payment by the ACH data is not enabled for the customer loyaltyidentifier then in operation 430, the merchant may prompt the customerto enable payment by the ACH data. For example, merchant 210 may displaya prompt on display area 122 of pin pad terminal 112. The displayedprompt may include an incentive for the customer to agree to authorizepayment by the ACH data such as, for example, a discount on the currentpurchase, coupons to be applied to future purchases, a cash gift, orother gifts such as merchandise, etc. In operation 435, if the customerdoes not agree, then the method ends and the payment transaction isprocessed using the customer's preferred method of payment.Alternatively, the customer may be provided the opportunity to cancelthe transaction, to present an alternative customer loyalty identifier,enter or select additional alternative payment information, etc.Otherwise, in operation 440, the merchant may prompt the customer forauthorization information. The authorization information may be anumeric or alphanumeric authorization code, such as a personalidentification number (PIN), entered on the keypad 216 of the merchant'sPOS system or through the display area 122 of the pin pad terminal 112.Alternatively, the authorization information may be biometricinformation of the customer provided through appropriate biometricreaders connected to the merchant's POS system (not shown).

If authorization information is received in operation 440, then, inoperation 445, the merchant may enable payment by the ACH data forpurchases associated with the customer's customer loyalty ID, and inoperation 450, the merchant may prompt the customer to apply the ACHdata to the current purchase. For example, merchant 210 may display aprompt on display area 122 of pin pad terminal 112. The displayed promptmay include an incentive for the customer to agree to apply the ACH datato the current purchase such as, for example, a discount on the currentpurchase, coupons to be applied to future purchases, a cash gift, orother gifts such as merchandise, etc. In operation 455, if the customerdoes not agree then the method ends and the payment transaction isprocessed using the customer's preferred method of payment.Alternatively, the customer may be provided the opportunity to cancelthe transaction, to present an alternative customer loyalty identifier,enter or select additional alternative payment information, etc.Otherwise, in operation 460, the merchant may apply the ACH data to thecurrent purchase.

By these methods, a merchant may realize reduced processing costs forcustomer payment transactions. For example, a merchant accepting paymentvia a payment card such as, for example, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, orAmerican Express, etc., may be charged processing fees assessed as apercentage of the transaction plus a fixed amount per transaction. Suchfees may be, for example 1.5% plus $0.10 per transaction. A merchantprocessing 10,000 transactions totaling $500,000 would incur costs of$8,500. In a retail setting with low profit margins, such fees mayrepresent a significant percentage cost to the merchant. Shiftingcustomer payments to alternative forms of payment that do not incur suchfees, such as ACH data, may, thus, provide additional profit for themerchant and may be sufficient to allow the merchant to offer cash ordiscount incentives to the customer.

These and other embodiments of the systems and methods may be used aswould be recognized by those skilled in the art. The above descriptionsof various systems and methods are intended to illustrate specificexamples and describe certain ways of making and using the systemsdisclosed and described here. These descriptions are neither intended tobe nor should be taken as an exhaustive list of the possible ways inwhich these systems can be made and used. A number of modifications,including substitutions of systems between or among examples andvariations among combinations can be made. Those modifications andvariations should be apparent to those of ordinary skill in this areaafter having read this disclosure.

The systems, apparatuses, devices, and methods disclosed herein aredescribed in detail by way of examples and with reference to thefigures. The examples discussed herein are examples only and areprovided to assist in the explanation of the apparatuses, devices,systems and methods described herein. None of the features or componentsshown in the drawings or discussed below should be taken as mandatoryfor any specific implementation of any of these the apparatuses,devices, systems or methods unless specifically designated as mandatory.For ease of reading and clarity, certain components, modules, or methodsmay be described solely in connection with a specific figure. In thisdisclosure, any identification of specific techniques, arrangements,etc. are either related to a specific example presented or are merely ageneral description of such a technique, arrangement, etc.Identifications of specific details or examples are not intended to be,and should not be, construed as mandatory or limiting unlessspecifically designated as such. Any failure to specifically describe acombination or sub-combination of components should not be understood asan indication that any combination or sub-combination is not possible.It will be appreciated that modifications to disclosed and describedexamples, arrangements, configurations, components, elements,apparatuses, devices, systems, methods, etc. can be made and may bedesired for a specific application. Also, for any methods described,regardless of whether the method is described in conjunction with a flowdiagram, it should be understood that unless otherwise specified orrequired by context, any explicit or implicit ordering of stepsperformed in the execution of a method does not imply that those stepsmust be performed in the order presented but instead may be performed ina different order or in parallel.

Reference throughout the specification to “various embodiments,” “someembodiments,” “one embodiment,” “some example embodiments,” “one exampleembodiment,” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature,structure, or characteristic described in connection with any embodimentis included in at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of the phrases“in various embodiments,” “in some embodiments,” “in one embodiment,”“some example embodiments,” “one example embodiment, or “in anembodiment” in places throughout the specification are not necessarilyall referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particularfeatures, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitablemanner in one or more embodiments.

Throughout this disclosure, references to components or modulesgenerally refer to items that logically can be grouped together toperform a function or group of related functions. Like referencenumerals are generally intended to refer to the same or similarcomponents. Components and modules can be implemented in software,hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. The term “software”is used expansively to include not only executable code, for examplemachine-executable or machine-interpretable instructions, but also datastructures, data stores and computing instructions stored in anysuitable electronic format, including firmware, and embedded software.The terms “information” and “data” are used expansively and includes awide variety of electronic information, including executable code;content such as text, video data, and audio data, among others; andvarious codes or flags. The terms “information,” “data,” and “content”are sometimes used interchangeably when permitted by context. It shouldbe noted that although for clarity and to aid in understanding someexamples discussed herein might describe specific features or functionsas part of a specific component or module, or as occurring at a specificlayer of a computing device (for example, a hardware layer, operatingsystem layer, or application layer), those features or functions may beimplemented as part of a different component or module or operated at adifferent layer of a communication protocol stack. Those of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize that the systems, apparatuses, devices,and methods described herein can be applied to, or easily modified foruse with, other types of equipment, can use other arrangements ofcomputing systems such as client-server distributed systems, and can useother protocols, or operate at other layers in communication protocolstacks, than are described.

It is intended that the specification and examples be considered asexemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention beingindicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for linking payment information withcustomer loyalty data, the method comprising: receiving, at a merchant'spoint-of-sale (POS) system, a customer loyalty identifier of a customervia a terminal of the POS system, the customer loyalty identifierreceived during a purchase transaction by the customer, the purchasetransaction using a first payment vehicle; identifying, based on thereceived customer loyalty identifier, financial account information ofthe customer stored in a database of the POS system, the financialaccount information providing a second payment vehicle associated withthe customer; determining whether the stored financial accountinformation of the customer is enabled for the customer to apply to thepurchase transaction; determining whether the second payment vehiclereduces one or more fees to the merchant in exchange for completing thepurchase transaction; offering, to the customer, a choice to completethe purchase transaction using the second payment vehicle; sending,based upon determining that a payment feature of the stored financialaccount information is not enabled for the customer loyalty identifier,first display instructions to the POS system for prompting the customerto enable the payment feature of the stored financial accountinformation using the second payment vehicle; sending second displayinstructions to the POS system for prompting the customer forauthorization information associated with payment by the storedfinancial account information using the second payment vehicle; enablingthe payment feature of the stored financial account information; andapplying the stored financial account information to a purchase of thecustomer.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein prompts presented to thecustomer are presented using a display device of a point of sale systemmaintained by a merchant.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein promptingthe customer to enable payment by the information of the financialaccount associated with the customer comprises offering an incentive forthe customer to enable payment by the information of the financialaccount associated with the customer, the incentive being one or more ofa discount on the current purchase, coupons to be applied to futurepurchases, a monetary gift, or a non-monetary gift.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the authorization information comprises one or more ofa numeric or alphanumeric authorization code or biometric information ofthe customer.
 5. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:prompting the customer to apply the information of the financial accountassociated with the customer to the current purchase, the promptcomprising an offer of an incentive for the customer to apply theinformation of the financial account associated with the customer to thecurrent purchase; and applying the information of the financial accountassociated with the customer to the current purchase.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the information of the financial account associatedwith the customer is automated clearing house (ACH) data associated withthe customer.
 7. A computer system for linking payment information withcustomer loyalty data, the system comprising: a memory havingprocessor-readable instructions stored therein; and a processorconfigured to access the memory and execute the processor-readableinstructions, which when executed by the processor configures theprocessor to perform a plurality of functions, including functions to:receive, at a merchant's point-of-sale (POS) system, a customer loyaltyidentifier of a customer via a terminal of the POS system, the customerloyalty identifier received during a purchase transaction by thecustomer, the purchase transaction using a first payment vehicle;identify, based on the received customer loyalty identifier, financialaccount information of the customer stored in a database of the POSsystem, the financial account information providing a second paymentvehicle associated with the customer; determine whether the storedfinancial account information of the customer is enabled for thecustomer to apply to the purchase transaction; determine whether thesecond payment vehicle reduces one or more fees to the merchant inexchange for completing the purchase transaction; offer, to thecustomer, a choice to complete the purchase transaction using the secondpayment vehicle; send, based upon determining that a payment feature ofthe stored financial account information is not enabled for the customerloyalty identifier, first display instructions to the POS system forprompting the customer to enable the payment feature of the storedfinancial account information using the second payment vehicle; sendsecond display instructions to the POS system to prompt the customer forauthorization information associated with payment by the storedfinancial account information using the second payment vehicle; enablethe payment feature of the stored financial account information; andapply the stored financial account information to a purchase of thecustomer.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein prompts presented to thecustomer are presented using a display device of a point of sale systemmaintained by a merchant.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein promptingthe customer to enable payment by the information of the financialaccount associated with the customer comprises offering an incentive forthe customer to enable payment by the information of the financialaccount associated with the customer, the incentive being one or more ofa discount on the current purchase, coupons to be applied to futurepurchases, a monetary gift, or a non-monetary gift.
 10. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the authorization information comprises one or more ofa numeric or alphanumeric authorization code or biometric information ofthe customer.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructionsexecuted by the processor further cause the processor to: prompt thecustomer to apply the information of the financial account associatedwith the customer to the current purchase, the prompt comprising anoffer of an incentive for the customer to apply the information of thefinancial account associated with the customer to the current purchase;and apply the information of the financial account associated with thecustomer to the current purchase.
 12. The system of claim 7, wherein theinformation of the financial account associated with the customer isautomated clearing house (ACH) data associated with the customer.
 13. Anon-transitory computer readable medium storing a program causing acomputer to execute a method of linking payment information withcustomer loyalty data, the method comprising: receiving, at a merchant'spoint-of-sale (POS) system, a customer loyalty identifier of a customervia a terminal of the POS system, the customer loyalty identifierreceived during a purchase transaction by the customer, the purchasetransaction using a first payment vehicle; identifying, based on thereceived customer loyalty identifier, financial account information ofthe customer stored in a database of the POS system; determining whetherthe stored financial account information of the customer is enabled forthe customer to apply to the purchase transaction; determining whetherthe financial account information of the customer reduces one or morefees to the merchant in exchange for completing the purchasetransaction; offering, to the customer, a choice to complete thepurchase transaction using the financial account information of thecustomer; sending, based upon determining that a payment feature of thestored financial account information is not enabled for the customerloyalty identifier, first display instructions to the POS system forprompting the customer to enable the payment feature of the storedfinancial account information; sending second display instructions tothe POS system for prompting the customer for authorization informationassociated with payment by the stored financial account information;enabling the payment feature of the stored financial accountinformation; and applying the stored financial account information to apurchase of the customer.
 14. The non-transitory computer readablemedium of claim 13, wherein prompts presented to the customer arepresented using a display device of a point of sale system maintained bya merchant.
 15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13,wherein prompting the customer to enable payment by the information ofthe financial account associated with the customer comprises offering anincentive for the customer to enable payment by the information of thefinancial account associated with the customer, the incentive being oneor more of a discount on the current purchase, coupons to be applied tofuture purchases, a monetary gift, or a non-monetary gift.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, the method furthercomprising: prompting the customer to apply the information of thefinancial account associated with the customer to the current purchase,the prompt comprising an offer of an incentive for the customer to applythe information of the financial account associated with the customer tothe current purchase; and applying the information of the financialaccount associated with the customer to the current purchase.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein theinformation of the financial account associated with the customer isautomated clearing house (ACH) data associated with the customer.